NEW DELHI (AP)--India's new government may enact
legislation to protect farmers' rights on patents,
a local news agency reported Monday.
The Indian government has been upset in recent months
over patents awarded in the U.S. for plant products that
the government says have been used in India for
hundreds of years.
The latest row is over the granting of a patent to a
Texas-based rice firm to produce and market a
long-grain rice called Texmati, similar to Basmati, an
aromatic rice grown in parts of India and Pakistan.
India says Basmati refers specially to the type of rice
grown in that region and wants the patent canceled. It
has, however, not filed an appeal with the U.S. Patent
Office.
India's junior agriculture minister, Som Pal, told a
meeting in New Delhi that the World Trade Organization
should punish those who misuse patents, Press Trust of
India news agency reported.
India does not have laws to protect its biodiversity
rights and intellectual property.
In the past, two American scientists were granted a
patent - subsequently canceled - for using turmeric to
heal wounds. The Indian government successfully argued
before the U.S. Patent Office that turmeric root has been
used for centuries in India to heal wounds.
Earlier, it lost out in trying to prevent American
companies from patenting processes to make
insecticides using neem, a plant used for thousands of
years by Indian farmers to keep away insects.
Meanwhile, a non-governmental organization, Research
Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, has
filed a case in India's Supreme court to force the
government to react in the Basmati patent case.
The court asked India's attorney-general last week what
the government had done to prevent biopiracy.
At least seven government ministries are currently
involved in taking steps to prevent biopiracy, the court
was told. They include a law to protect agricultural
biodiversity, recognizing indigenous knowledge systems
and bring into effect the convention on biological
diversity, according to Vandana Shiva, director of the
foundation.
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